speakerjohnboehnerisholding a news conference about the house republican elections. kathy mcmorris rodgers has been elected to be house g.o.p. conference chairman and beat tom price who was endorsed by paul ryan who was the republican vice presidential nominee. and a couple of leadership positions will stay the same, including majority leader eric cantor and house whip kevin mccarthy. we are waiting to hear more about the elections. >> we are waiting to hear what happened from house speaker john boehner. a bit of background, one house republican sought to nominate newt gingrich for house speaker. we will have speaker boehner shortly. nancy pelosi announced that she plans to stay on as the leader of the house democrats and made the announcement at a press briefing and said, quote, i wouldn't think of walking away. we will watch that now while waiting for speaker boehner. >> i think that means most of them are here. good morning. more are coming. more are coming. yesterday, when we gathered here, i began my comments standing here with our new members of congress by saying a picture i

to acknowledge speakerjohnboehnerandhouse majority leader cantor and our democratic leader nancy pelosi for their support of this bill. i thank my colleagues, the gentlelady from guam, and also from the northern mariana islands, ms. bordallo, and mr. sablan, for their co-sponsorship of this bill. mr. speaker, today american samoa faces a serious problem of tobacco smuggling, as i'm sure it's the same with the other territories. according to a recent study two years ago, as many as five million, five million d 5,792,924 cigarettes were smuggled into the territory. the study found that tobacco smuggling resulted in the loss of about $724,,116 in revenues to the american samoa government. if continued undeterred, tobacco smuggling in the territories will include to heavier losses in local tax revenues, especially if cigarettes' excise tax rates were to be increased. mr. speaker, in this age of government fiscal responsibility, securing and sustaining stable resources of local revenue streaming is essential and must be encouraged for the territories. it was for this reason why i began to lo